Young Wine Writer Competition Shock

Another lucky break for Du Toitskloof who announce the winner of their SA Wine Writer of the Year next Friday in Paarl. Veritas had planned to scoop them by announcing their SA Young Wine Writer of the Year this coming Monday but a late breaking bombshell has wrecked my inbox and diary: “due to unforeseen circumstances the announcement of the winners has to be postponed to Monday 25 Nov at 16:30 atDe Grendel. Some delicious wine and canapés will be served.”

Let’s hope the delay won’t upset any plans of “Dirty Harry” Haddon, widely tipped to waltz away with the victor’s nasturtium. Was the delay perhaps to accommodate Tooth Fairy Tim James, who is in London we hear, on pressing brandy and Cognac tasting business for World of Fine (but Boring) Wine? A feature we hear he peddled as payback for his first trip to Blighty in years. Let’s hope the publication condones this blatant payback of freebees. And let’s also hope the labels are clearly visible, as Tim misses the bowl when he tries to do it blind and someone has to clean up after him.

Tim is tipped to win the inaugural Du Toitskloof for a quasi-academic carefully reasoned but boring piece on global climate change. The field opened up like a venus fly trap for him when previous winners of the Franschhoek
by franschhoekwines Wine Writing Award/Fiasco, Joanne Trollope-Gibson and Norman Mailer-McFarlane missed the deadline due to Global Warming.